It has heretofore been proposed to hook, or knit a carded fiber batt, or roving, to a reinforcing woven fabric base by punching fibers of the batt through the layers or knitting separate yarns therethrough. The woven fabric has been "burlap" as in U.S. Pat. No. 2,580,089 to Grant of 1951, or in U.S. Pat. No. 1,816,416 to Willingham of 1931, and has been "cheese-cloth" as in U.S. Pat. No. 2,672,673 to Shaw of 1954.
In German Pat. No. 900,056 to Dilo of 1953, a plurality of wales of chain stitches appear on the face of the textile base but the wales are not connected. On the other hand, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,457,738 to Book of 1969 a batting is disclosed as the base, there being a plurality of chain loops on one side and nubs on the other side but no woven reinforcing fabric.
As far as we are aware there has been no teaching in the prior art of a composite, unitary, dimensionally-stable, fabric formed by tricot stitching a tight woven synthetic fabric to a batting of cardable fibers to produce a thin, cloth-like material of substantially uniform cross section especially useful for bedspreads, or for the uppers of foot gear such as sneakers, athletic shoes, etc.